Project Overview

On July 9, 2024, the Cupertino City Council unanimously voted to adopt the Cupertino Vision Zero Policy and Action Plan. This Plan guides policies and programs with the goal of eliminating fatalities and severe injuries on Cupertino roadways by 2040 for all roadway users, including those who walk, bike, drive, ride transit, and travel by other modes. Vision Zero programs prioritize safety over other transportation goals, acknowledge that traffic fatalities and serious injuries are preventable, and incorporate a multidisciplinary Safe System approach. The final draft report can be viewed below.

Cupertino Vision Zero Action Plan

How Does that Relate to You?

The core belief of Vision Zero is that death and injury on City streets is preventable. This approach to safety emphasizes smarter street designs that account for human error and education, data-driven enforcement, and community engagement. With the Vision Zero approach City departments and residents work together to make City streets safer and meet the goal of zero deaths and serious injuries in Cupertino.

Goal

To eliminate traffic-related serious injuries and deaths in Cupertino by 2040

• Prioritize people first over motor vehicular speed
• Prioritize projects based on safety and equity
• Prioritize funding to align with safety/multi-modal projects
• Evaluate and revise engineering/design standards and planning documents to promote sidewalk connectivity and reflect Vision Zero commitment
• Partner with schools, non-profit organizations, and our community to develop projects and collaborations that align and support Vision Zero

Vision Zero

What is Vision Zero?

Beginning in 1997, Vision Zero is an international effort to eliminate all fatal and serious injury traffic crashes. Adopted by more than 40 communities across the United States, it is a heartfelt belief that these crashes are preventable and that changed attitudes and approaches will enable success.

Vision Zero is based on five key principles:

1. Traffic Deaths and severe injuries are preventable.
2. Human life and health are prioritized within all aspects of transportation systems.
3. Human error is inevitable, and transportation systems should be forgiving.
4. Safety work should focus on systems-level change above influencing individual behavior.
5. Speed is recognized as the fundamental factor in crash severity.

Vision Zero encourages cities to adopt policies and implement programs and procedures that can eliminate the potential for serious injury and fatal traffic-related crashes to occur. Cupertino's goal is to eliminate all serious injury and fatal traffic-related crashes by 2040.

Cupertino's Road to Zero

The City of Cupertino's 2040 General Plan states that Cupertino will ensure the efficient and safe movement of cars, trucks, transit, pedestrians, bicyclists and, disabled persons throughout Cupertino in order to fully accommodate Cupertino’s residents, workers, visitors, and students of all ages and abilities, and commits to the protection of the community from risks to life associated with human-caused hazards and establishes as a goal the promotion of improvements to city streets that safely accommodate all transportation modes and persons of all abilities.

Vision Zero Action Plan

The Plan will guide policies and programs with the goal of eliminating fatalities and serious injuries on Cupertino roadways. Special emphasis will be placed on routes to, and streets surrounding, Cupertino schools. The plan focuses on near-term recommendations to bring immediate improvements in traffic safety and make needed systemic changes. Many of the action items outlined in the Plan can be implemented rapidly. Others are grounded in the understanding that it will take sustained commitment to traffic safety principles to bring about cultural, infrastructural, and policy changes that will be fundamental in realizing Vision Zero.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders play an important role in the development of the Vision Zero Action Plan. Stakeholders will be providing valuable insight to the project team and serving as the city's safety champions. The city has identified the following as stakeholders:

• City staff: Public Works, Planning & Public Outreach Representative.
• County Sheriff Department.
• County Fire Department.
• Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee.
• Cupertino Union School District (CUSD)
• Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD)
• Walk Bike Cupertino.

Community Meetings

City staff held the project's first community meeting on October 04, 2023. The meeting was held virtually. The purpose of the meeting was to introduce the project to the community and to collect feedback. The goals and process of vision zero, collison trends, high injury network, collision profiles, counter measures, and next steps were presented/discussed, followed by open discussion. The meeting concluded with a Q&A session, where speakers were given opportunity to speak, and City staff/Consultant responded to questions asked.
October 04, 2023 Community Meeting Presentation

October 04, 2023 Community Meeting Video

City staff held the project's second community meeting on January 23, 2024. The principles and benefits of the Vision Zero plan, process, collision analysis, countermeasures toolbox, collision profiles, action plan, vision zero programs, and next steps were presented and discussed, followed by an open discussion. The meeting concluded with a Q&A session, where speakers were given the opportunity to speak, and the city staff and consultants responded to questions asked. 
January 23, 2024, Community Meeting Presentation
January 23, 2024 Community Meeting Video

Resources

City of Cupertino - Local Roadway Safety Plan 2023

Provide Feedback

Let us know if you have any comments or suggestions about the project by contacting Assistant Engineer Prashanth Dullu at prashanthd@cupertino.org or (408) 777-3190.